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X-Men 1.5

X-Men 1.5

List Price: $19.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: X-Men Misses It's Mark
Review: Maybe I shouldn't have expected much from the X-Men but with Bryan Singer at the helm and his Apt Pupil star Ian McKellen in front of the camera I figured at the very least it would be entertaining. And it is that, but my biggest complaint is that the first twenty minutes are so exceptional in the way the transend the typical comic book fare that it's a shame to see the rest of the movie fall apart. It's as though Fox executives somewhere along the line saw the dalies and reminded Singer that he was making a much anticipated summer blockbuster, which brings with it certain expectations. These expectations are met in the form of off-the-wall action, flamboyant characters that take themselves far too seriously and lots of eye candy.

If I had to pick a star out of the ensemble cast it'd have to be Hugh Jackman, who's the only actor to leave any kind of an impression, in the role of Wolverine. He's a mutant drifter with an uncanny knack for healing himself who uses his powers, he also has retractable blades in his forearms, to fight his way out of trouble. He travels from city to city, town to town, making money at tough man contests. Being as the Aussie's a bit of a pretty boy, and bears a remarkable resemblence to Gladiator star Russell Crowe, none of the bar thugs want to concede that he's the better man, even after he's pumbled their peers. So naturally he cleans up at these events, or at least until he meets a young girl and fellow mutant named Rouge. Rouge's power (or in this case curse) is that she drains the lifeforce out of anybody she touches, even if it's inadventant.

Reluctantly Wolverine takes up with Rouge and the duo hit the road. And it's not long after that they find themselves targeted by an evil mutant, Magneto (McKellen), bent on waging war on the humans. He's loathing of mankind is spawned from surviving the Holocaust, and having seen the depths to which we're capable he decides to vanquish us. He's met with opposition from a professor, Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who operates a school for the gifted. Little does the taxpaying public know that this school is actually teaching mutants to hone their abilites, in this case in a positive way.

Chief skeptic to that fact is a Senator whose overwhelming fear of the mutants leads him to press for a bill that would act as a segregation law to seperate their kind from ours. With mutants already having to endure an intolderably high number of threats this bill would only serve to condone the behavior of those who would perpetrate these hate crimes. With his hopefulness in mankind contuniously sinking, Magneto takes the first step towards war by kidnapping the Senator and turning him into a mutant himself. By doing this to him, and others like him, Magneto fells he can take control of the Congress and ultimately the world.

Scribe David Hayter makes a concerted effort to blur the lines between good and evil, but instead of making the film more thoughtful he only confuses the situation more. He tries to do exactly what I'm critizing the film for not doing enough of, and I in turn am critizing him for that. Maybe the X-Men just can't win with me. Or maybe it's that inconsistency, the poor balancing act done between social satire and breakneck action that perturbs me so. The filmmakers seem uncertain in the direction they want to take to movie, so they oversimplify things. They allow the picture to switch gears at random which sends the story into a tailspin.

But what did I expect? Unfarmilar with the D.C. comic, and not being a particular fan of comics turned into films in general, I must admit a bias against this movie going in. So maybe I'm not best suited to judge a film of this genre, but I can only hope that Ang Lee's upcoming The Incredible Hulk realizes the potential that I saw in this picture's first few minutes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good movie..don't listen to what others have to say!
Review: This movie was a good movie! Some people said it stunk and had bad acting but that isn't true. It was an all star cast. The people that write bad reviews for this movie are people who don't understand X-Men or people who get mad if one thing about the plot isn't right. The director of X-Men said "if you are looking for a movie with huge special effects and lots of fighting scenes then this isn't the movie to see". This movie has a nice plot though it doesn't fit totally with the comics or animated X-Men show. If you love X-Men and you are NOT a complainer then get this movie other wise don't buy it and then complain to everyone how you hated it because it just makes people mad at you. Have a good day :)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Bit of Fun
Review: X-Men is not a film that is going to last forever in the annals of film history, but it is a fun movie, enjoyable, fast moving, pretty good plot and excellent action sequences. The story is not particularly cerebral, but it doesn't have to be - good, solid entertainment with mutants beating each other over the head.

Enjoyable stuff.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Impressive first effort
Review: The film overall was great. Special Effects were not overdone. The writing crisp and efficient with a believable plotline, setting the stage for more adventures. Translating comics to the silver screen is no easy task, let's hope the same creative team keeps improving with each film.

When it was announced that Dougray Scott was to be cast as Wolverine and Halle Berry as Storm I thought, "Not going to bother with this film." But thankfully MI2 ran overschedule causing X-men's Director to look to Hugh Jackman...Hooray! He is perfect as Wolverine, the man can act!

Halle Berry as the Storm was a casting mistake. Angela Bassett is the only known African-American actress who could have pulled off the proper blend of regal elegance and fearless of the character. Ms. Berry was physically wrong for the role and lacks a particular "presence". Patrick Stewart is perfect as Professor X. Great suits! Allan Rickman was my original choice, but Ian McKellan blews him out of the water.

Looking forward to more thrills from our favorites mutants!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: This movie was a big hit! The story line was a little weak but other than that the movie was a huge success! The special effects was one of the things that were really smooth. I only wanted the movie to have more characters from the actual cartoon. This movie is worth seeing!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brilliant acting from Jackman, Stewart, and Paquin!
Review: There are three wonderful performances in this movie. Hugh Jackman is awesome as Wolverine. Patrick Stewart is calm and commanding as Xavier. But the heart of the film is Anna Paquin's Rogue. The filmmakers decided to make Rogue a real person rather than the fake cartoon version. Some fans still don't get the fact that making Rogue real gives the movie depth. Ignore them. Paquin's Rogue makes this movie a film worth watching AND thinking about. Rogue is terribly tragic because she is a real teenage girl with a tragic affliction. She is forever alone. And Paquin is brilliant as Rogue. See this film. The scenes between Paquin and Jackman are truly touching. Trust me, this is a very well acted film. See it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: X-tremely well done
Review: Being an X-Men fan from way back, I've always been leary of movie adaptations, which tend to re-package comics in a more simplified, special effects / powers emphasized over characterization, "public-friendly" form. The X-Men movie, however, managed to hang on to the decades old complex characterizations of its main characters, and show some of the depth that made the X-Men series such a good read all these years. Casting of Prof. X, Wolverine, Magneto, Toad, Jean Grey, and the young Rogue was superb. Toad actually surpassed his comic book version. The previous relationship between Rogue and Mystique was ignored in favor of a new plotline, and Scott/Cyclops seemed a tad young for Jean, but I can live with that considering how well it all turned out as a package. The Storm character was nowhere near as strong, compassionate and imposing a character as she is in the book (group leader material once Scott gets out of the way), but since she was considered a secondary character in the movie, it was probably wise not to flesh out her personality as fully as it is in the books. We would have wound up with just one too many subplots happening. Hopefully in a sequel she'll really get a chance to shine. Looking forward to the next go round.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome Movie
Review: I was not a marvel fan when I first went to see this movie. This movie is very well made. There is no corny comic book stuff. It is all action! I saw this in the theatre twice! The actors are great and the story line is eventful! I would recommend this to all of my friends!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Mostly disappointing
Review: When I used to read comics back in high school, the X-Men were my favorite and so I watched this movie more out of sense of nostalgia than anything else. Unfortunately, it didn't exceed those rather modest expectations - this despite the fact that the X-Men seemed to me one of the few super-hero comics that could be effectively adapted into an SF film and gain an appeal outside of fans of the original comic book. But the director and writers seemed unsure about how to approach the movie: either make it a genre film for "X-Men insiders" or an SF thriller with broad appeal. The result is a little of neither. Even so, the acting is generally good in spite everything going against the movie. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are perfectly cast as Professor Xavier and Magneto, respectively, the two most intriguing characters in the whole X-Men story - personally I think the whole movie would have been much better if the story and action revolved exclusively around them. Here, however, they are generally sidelined (esp. Prof. Xavier, who spends a major part of the movie in a coma) as more emphasis is placed on fight sequences and special effects. Despite some very good, even moving scenes, like the first sequence showing Magneto's early childhood as a Holocaust survivor, the movie's plot is actually quite silly - believe me, comic books are written better than this. There is little in the way of interesting character development, since the story is based on a serial publication with dozens of characters and none of them are given a chance to really stand out. Perhaps that's the main problem: the X-Men would function much better as a television series than as a feature-length film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Oh...they should've given this the 2-Disc treatment
Review: This was the best summer movie of last year. This was also a great movie reditioning of the classic comic-book. Next, with all the cuts made before it was released, it should've made it easily onto a second disc. I mean, ye gods man, this was a great movie! How could they NOT give it 2 discs?


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